Traditionally thermal management systems have typically been based on forced convective cooling, alone or in combination with a heat sink. Early prior art suffer from problems like bulkiness of the parts contained in the system, mechanically complicated structures, moving parts etc. More recently thermal management systems utilizing cooling by means of synthetic jet actuators and heat pipes have become common for different types of heat sources.
A synthetic jet actuator utilizes a synthetic jet to influence the air flow over a body. Typically a synthetic jet actuator comprises a housing defining a resonator cavity. An orifice is present in the wall of the housing. The synthetic jet further comprises an oscillating member arranged in or about the resonator cavity housing for periodically generating synthetic jet streams, i.e. an oscillating air stream that is projected in an external environment out from the orifice of the housing. The oscillating member may be a loudspeaker, a movable piston, or a flexible diaphragm as a wall of the housing. The flexible diaphragm is typically actuated by a piezoelectric actuator or other appropriate means. The air stream provides a highly efficient cooling at a specific position determined by the orifice.
A heat pipe is generally a vacuum tight device comprising a working fluid and housing. The heat pipe works with a two-phase change process which is driven by a temperature difference between a cooler condenser part of the housing and a warmer evaporator part of the housing. Heat input at the evaporator part of the housing of the heat pipe vaporizes the liquid working fluid. The vapour then flows towards a cooler condenser part of the housing, the vapour condenses and the latent heat of vaporization carried in the vapour gives up its latent heat. The condensed liquid returns to the evaporator part of the housing by capillary action or gravity, or a combination thereof.
It is known to combine heat pipes and synthetic jet actuators in thermal management systems. The US Patent Application Publication No. US 2007/0127210 A1 discloses a thermal management system which comprises a plurality of heat sources thermally connected to a remotely arranged heat exchanger via heat pipes. The heat exchanger comprises a plurality of heat fins which are exposed to a fluidic flow, which fluidic flow through the heat exchanger is augmented with a synthetic jet actuator.
It is desirable to provide thermal management systems that further addresses less complicated installation, efficient heat transport, bulkiness and degree of complexity of the system during manufacturing, mounting and operation.